The present invention relates to jewelry settings and to a jewelry setting method for setting diamonds or precious stones and, more particularly, to a setting using a bezel style mounting that reduces to a minimum the portion of the diamond that is overlapped by the bezel, yet preserving the strength and durability of the setting.
In general, techniques for setting diamonds and other precious stones have been known for many centuries. The prior art is reflected in patent documents spanning over a century including U.S. Pat. No. 677,075 which uses a sheet metal ring with an annular series of extending prongs that support the stones. Other U.S. patents include U.S. Pat. Nos. 736,022; 1,818,324; 2,058,978; 2,774,231; D409,518; D480,659; D485,509; and D498,699. The gamut of these patents covers different techniques including various modes of creating grooves on the pavilions of the diamonds and other techniques for mounting diamonds invisibly. The contents of the aforementioned patents are incorporated by reference herein.
Additional prior art patents that describe the background of the invention include U.S. Pat. No. 5,072,601, which relates to a particular type of invisible mounting setting, U.S. Pat. No. 8,215,126, in which diamonds are grooved and mounted in a peculiar way; U.S. Pat. No. 5,649,434, which in turn refers to U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,072,601 and 5,115,649, which focus on square settings where sloped grooves are created into the diamonds. The full contents of the aforementioned patents are incorporated by reference herein.
Thus, the prior art is very familiar with precious stone or diamond mounting techniques that use a “metal housing (mounting)” and techniques which use a prong setting, or a pave setting, or a micro-pave setting, or a channel setting, or a channel prong setting, a nick setting, a bezel setting, a flush setting, and the aforementioned invisible setting techniques.
The object of the present invention is to provide a setting that utilizes the bezel type of the prior art setting, but in an improved construction and method of mounting that ameliorates some of the drawbacks of the prior art associated with bezel settings.
In general, in jewelry settings, the bezel, in the case of ring jewelry, occupies a wider and usually thicker section of the hoop, which may contain a flat surface, usually with an engraved design, as in a Signet ring or a gem. The bezel typically holds the stone, i.e., the diamond, in place using a raised surrounding for the diamond with a lip encircling and overlapping the edges of the stone, thus holding the stone in place. In the aforementioned prior art, the band of metal forming the lip contains a groove and a flange to hold the gemstone in the setting.
The present invention is rooted in the realization that in diamond jewelry, the most precious material is the diamond itself. Therefore, it is self-evident that one would strive to have a bezel setting covering over as little as possible of the edges of the diamond. The diamond is an illustrious material and covering up the sparkling material takes away significant value of the piece of jewelry. In addition, in a prior art setting that uses prongs, there is always a concern that during regular use of a jewelry, the prong areas will subject the diamond to scratching, chipping, fracturing or breaking. It is noted that the sharp edges in a cut diamond are located at the bottom tip of the diamond, at the “cullet” and also at the girdle where the diamond has its widest diameter and it begins sloping inward along it pavilion. The girdle is typically thin and is subject to being broken.
In prior art settings, the cullets of the diamonds are relatively protected because they are located deep within the setting and far from being exposed to external forces. This is not so with the girdle of the diamond where damage can more easily occur because of its accessibility.
To appreciate certain drawbacks of the prior art bezel setting methods, reference is made below to prior art FIGS. 1A, 1B, 1C and 1D. In the prior art bezel setting 100 (FIG. 1A), the diamond 120 is located and held in a bezel setting 110 which, as shown in FIG. 1B, has a barrel shaped body 111 with a circumscribing flange 113 the top which is slightly narrower than the width of the overall barrel body 111 and which has a circumscribing peripherally extending notch or undercutting 114.
Typically, during mounting of the diamond 120, the diamond is held with its cullet 122 pointing to the inside of the barrel body 111 and is forcefully pushed into the setting so that that it slightly deforms the lip/flange 113 and then snaps into position so that the girdle 124 of the diamond 120 snaps into the notch 114. The notional bracket 124 (in FIG. 1A) indicates the diameter of the diamond 120 and its relationship to the outer diametrical size of the bezel 110. Indeed, as shown in FIG. 1D, in the prior art bezel setting 110, the portion 126 of the diamond 120 that is visible above the upper surface of the bezel is recessed quite a bit from the peripheral circumferential outer surface of the bezel. This is because the lip/flange 113 has to be quite wide/thick relative to the wall thickness of the body 111, to allow it to deform and snap back to its original shape, when the diamond 120 is being forced into the setting 100.
In the conventional bezel setting method, the bezel wall thickness is about 0.50 to 0.80 mm and some jewelers provide even a greater thickness than 0.8 mm. Also, in the prior art bezel settings, the girdle of the diamond is inserted in the bezel wall to a depth of about 0.10 to 0.20 mm. As a result of the prior art setting methods, the ratio of the visible portion of the diamond to the outer diameter of the metal housing (the mounting) is very low, on the order of about 60 to 77%. Moreover, due to the thick bezel walls around the diamond, the diamond looks considerably smaller than its actual size. The actual percentages of the aforementioned visibility percentages depend on the size of the diamond being mounted and the degree of visibility that is obtained in the prior art is set forth in the table below.
Prior Art “Conventional Bezel Setting”Size of DiamondRatio of “Visible Diamond PortionDiamond Crown(Girdle Diameterto the Body of Metal Housingvisibility % in in mm)(Mounting)” in top viewside view2.0-3.0 mm60-65%0%3.0-5.0 mm65-70% 0-25%5.0-8.0 mm70-75%25-50%